Friday, October 7, 2011

On Steak & Eggs

I have never once in my life ordered steak and eggs. I love a good steak; I like scrambled eggs. So why have I never combined the two? Well, it's a story my dad told me when I was a kid, one that has stuck with me for perhaps a quarter-century now. He was working in a restaurant when he was a teenager - a pretty famous national chain - and the cooked showed him how they tenderized the steak for steak and eggs: by dropping it on the floor and repeatedly stomping on it.

That image, not surprisingly, has always flashed into my mind every time I've seen steak and eggs on a restaurant's menu. And not just at Den- er, the restaurant at which he was working, but any restaurant.

However, last weekend Elizabeth and I went to Green Street Tavern for lunch. It was the first day of October and it was really hot. (It seems funny that less than a week ago it was so hot, as the last few days have been cool, with some rain.) We sat at our usual sidewalk table, in the shade of the big tree, and ordered glasses of iced tea. When I wrote about my lunch at GST last month, I mentioned that they had removed a few items from their lunch menu, including, unfortunately, the wild boar meatloaf sandwich, the best sandwich I had eaten all year. I was not surprised to see it also gone from the brunch menu.

There were three sandwiches on the menu, including their GST burger, but I had just made my own burger for dinner the night before. So I decided to order, for the first time in my life, steak and eggs. Why not? I felt comfortable that the cook would not be stomping on my steak before cooking it. I was given the choice of how I wanted my steak cooked (medium-rare) and how I wanted my eggs (scrambled).

The picture above is what I was presented with. It was, in my opinion, gorgeous in a rustic kind of way. The tortillas were folded up neatly, the steak, potatoes and eggs were crammed together in the center of the plate, cheese (I think feta) and cilantro were scattered on top, and the three containers sat off to the side: sour cream, pico de gallo, and a jalapeno jam.

I used almost all of the items available to me, with the exception of the pico de gallo (it looked like it had avocado in it). I layered two pieces of steak and a few potatoes on top of the eggs in each tortilla and topped it with the condiments.

It was not only the best steak and eggs I have ever had - as I mentioned, that's a pretty small sample size - it was the best breakfast burrito I have ever had. And those I've had a lot of. The steak was melt-in-your-mouth good and the cheese, jalapeno jam and potatoes were a wonderful combination. Items like this are good enough to temper my white-hot hatred of brunch.

Elizabeth decided to order one of the sandwiches: a pork belly sandwich with a fried egg. I did not try any of it - although I ate a bunch of her fries - but she loved the sandwich. It certainly looked pretty.

I’ve never had steak&eggs either. I saw it on a menu last weekend, too, and it suddenly sounded delicious (despite my vegetarianism.) I didn’t order it but I also had a very different idea of what it would look like. Yours looks incredible. And you get tortillas! I’d imagined a big slab of steak with a fried egg on top. Maybe a sprig of parsley on the side. Why I thought that sounded good, I don’t know. Maybe I need to get back on the chuck wagon.

Looks amazing! This doesn't look like the regular steak & eggs you find in Vegas for a couple of bucks. I also like the tortillas and fixins that are accompanied. I like the egg in the pork belly. Though it looks more like a BLT, since there isn't a lot of pork.